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Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO
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Re: Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
"If his former exes asked for a restraining order against him, what incentive or assurance does he have for allowing them to break up with him?" The problem is Russia. Russia could be a normal country like its neighbors and make money from trading goods while wooing foreign investors, but Putin took the history books he read too seriously and thinks he can pull another round of territorial conquests. I don't see how…
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You don't create reality with your imagination.
Re: Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO
#33[flagged]
Finnish sovereignty isn’t a threat to Russian sovereignty. It’s only a threat to Russian sovereignty over Finland. The calculus does not change if you replace Finland with a former USSR territory—Ukrainian sovereignty doesn’t threaten Russian sovereignty, for example. Russia knows that NATO isn’t a real threat to Russian sovereignty and we know it knows because Russia demilitarized its NATO borders—NATO is only a threat to Russian imperialism, and Russia acting on its imperialist interests only persuades more countries to apply to NATO (thereby further degrading its imperial potential).
Re: Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO
#34Re: Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO
#35Re: Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
The smart view of that is that regardless of whatever ridiculous arguments for Russian imperialism people want to engage in Russia is not physically capable of conquering the Baltic states.
*Without using their nukes
Nukes are useless tactically. Especially when you can't provide CBRN uniforms and training to all your troops.
Re: Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO
#37As General Adolf Ehrnrooth aptly put it ”Ei enää koskaan yksin”, ”We should never again defend ourselves alone” as the lesson of the Winter War. Glad that we finally acted on that lesson and got allied. Another nail in the coffin of finlandization, albeit with a heavy price the Ukrainians continue to pay every day.
Re: Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO
#38Finland got de-Finlandized at last. Which is what the expansion of NATO was always about. NATO isn't a threat to Russia itself - if Russia seriously feared NATO aggression, it wouldn't voluntarily demilitarize its NATO borders during the past 13 months. NATO expansion just neutralizes Russian ability to force its will upon its neighbors through threat of aggression (or in case like Ukraine through the use of aggressi…
I don't buy the idea that it was a mistake for NATO to allow former Soviet bloc countries to join, because it would supposedly encroach on Russia's sphere of influence or increase tensions with Russia. Spheres of influence are gained through economic muscle and cultural power now, not force of arms.
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Re: Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO
#39Re: Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't buy the idea that it was a mistake for NATO to allow former Soviet bloc countries to join, because it would supposedly encroach on Russia's sphere of influence or increase tensions with Russia. Spheres of influence are gained through economic muscle and cultural power now, not force of arms.
> Spheres of influence are gained through economic muscle and cultural power now, not force of arms. Amusingly, that status quo is enforced via the USA’s supposed overwhelming force of arms. Which in turn suggests your analysis is deeply deficient in its consideration of higher order effects.
Ukraine is asking for those guns ... and one of many reason is that being under Russian leadership means becoming poorer and poorer.